Dr. Zabihollah Rezaee is currently the Thompson-Hill Chair of Excellence and Professor of Accounting and PhD coordinator at the University of Memphis and has served a 2-year term on the Standing Advisory Group (SAG) to assist the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) in its standard-setting responsibilities (2004-2006). He is currently (2019-2023) the editor of the Journal of Forensic Accounting Research, one of the journals of the American Accounting Association (AAA) and appointed to the Honorary Advisory Panel of the Financial Reporting Council in Hong Kong (December 2019-September 2021). Dr. Rezaee has taught previously at the following universities: Middle Tennessee State University, University of Detroit, University of Alabama in Huntsville, University of Tehran in Iran, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Malaya and Uitm Universities in Malaysia, Lulea Technology University in Sweden, United International College (UIC), Fudan, Beijing Normal University, Sino-US college and Peking Universities in China and the University of Puerto Rico. Dr. Rezaee’s areas of teaching are auditing, financial accounting, international and managerial accounting, internal auditing, accounting systems applications, financial statement analysis, corporate governance, business sustainability and ethics and financial reporting and auditing seminars at undergraduate, graduate and PhD levels. He was the PhD coordinator 2014-2019. He served as Secretary (2013-2014) of the Forensic & Investigative Accounting Section and served on Auditing Standards Committee of the AAA. He is currently (2020-2021) serving as the chair of the Budget and Finance Committee of the Faculty Senate at the University of Memphis in reviewing educational and financial sustainability of all academic affairs units.

Professor Rezaee’s teaching philosophy and practice reflects a dedicated commitment to student learning and often says, “If it was not for students, faculty would not be at the University and if it was not for faculty, the University would not exist.” He views the University as a community of faculty, students, administrators and staff who are gathered to support learning by creating knowledge, disseminating knowledge and implementing knowledge. Focusing on shared governance, respect for others, diversity, integrity, honesty and competency in the academic, personal and professional affairs, and a culture of accountability and transparency. Dr. Rezaee’s approach as a scholar, practicing accountant and teacher are guided based on his six E’s of Excitement, Energy, Engagement, Efficiency, Effectiveness and Excellence. He has actively encouraged Executive MBA aspirants to examine and pursue their commitments to tone at the top, shared value, effective communication, culture of integrity, competency, compliance and accountability.  Evaluations by students and colleagues indicate high effectiveness in teaching.

Dr. Rezaee has published over 225 articles in well-recognized academic and practitioner journals such as: the Journal of Accounting and Economics; Contemporary Accounting Research, Auditing: A Journal of Theory & Practice; Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance; Accounting Horizons, Research in Accounting Regulation, Strategic Finance; and the Journal of Accountancy, Journal of Management Accounting Research, Journal of Accounting Literature among many others. He has presented over 235 research papers at universities and regional, national and international meetings and has received numerous research grants from various sources. He currently serves on the editorial board of several journals and has reviewed papers for many journals, meetings and organizations. He received the Lybrand Bronze Medal for the outstanding Article of the Year in 1999, selected by the Institute of Management Accountants; Outstanding Contributor Award, IIA for his article, “The Three Cs of Fraudulent Financial Reporting,” Internal Auditor (October 2002 issue); was a finalist for the SOX Institute’s SOX MVP 2007 Award and was the 2011 Award winner for SOX Corporate Governance and Risk Management. He is ranked in the top tenth (10^th) percentile of authors in the SSRN based on 10,932total paper downloads as of January 15, 2020. He is ranked in the top ten (fourth place) of the most productive faculty (graduated in 1985) in the study by Hasselback et al., 2012 “Benchmarking the Research Productivity of accounting doctorates”, Issues in Accounting Education, November 2012, Vol.24, No.4.

Dr. Rezaee holds the CPA, CMA, CIA, CFE, CGFM, CSOXP, CGOVP, CGRCP, CGMA and CRMA certifications and possesses practical experience in both financial and managerial accounting and auditing. He has also published eight books: Financial Institutions, Valuations, Mergers, and Acquisitions: The Fair Value Approach; Financial Statement Fraud: Prevention and Detection; U.S. Master Auditing Guide 3rd edition; Audit Committee Oversight Effectiveness Post-Sarbanes-Oxley Act; Corporate Governance Post-Sarbanes-Oxley: Regulations, Requirements, and Integrated Processes; Corporate Governance and Business Ethics; Financial Services Firms: governance, Regulations, Valuations, Mergers, and Acquisitions; and Corporate Sustainability: Integrating Performance and Reporting, which won the 2013 Axiom Gold Award in the category of “Business Ethics”, another book, entitled Business Sustainability: Performance, Compliance, Accountability, and Integrated Reporting, was published in October 2015 by Greenleaf Publishing. His recent books on Audit Committee Effectiveness and Corporate Governance and Forensic Accounting were published by Business Expert Press in July 2016, March 2018 and April 2019. Two recent books on Business Sustainability in Asia and Business Sustainability, Corporate Governance and Organizational Ethics (textbook) were published by John Wiley in March and October 2019. Several of these books are translated into other languages including Chinese, Persian, Korean, and Spanish.

 He has served on several university committees, held officer positions in numerous professional organizations, provided consulting to United Nations development programs and served on the Standing Advisory Group of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). He is currently serving on the President’s Academic Advisory Council at the University of Memphis. Dr. Rezaee has been involved extensively in the development and review of accounting programs at several universities abroad, coordinated their graduate and PhD programs and is currently the PhD program coordinator/representative at the School of Accountancy on the college PhD sub-council at the University of Memphis. Dr. Rezaee was one of the finalists for the position of the Faculty Trustee at the University of Memphis in 2016 and the Ombudsperson position in 2017. He has served on the editorial boards of 10 accounting journals, the Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Economics and Statistics, 2015-2017; Guest Editor, Sustainability Journal, 2018-2019 and 2019-2021 and Journal of Sustainability Research,2019-2021. He has served as expert witness and testified in Federal courts.

1985           PhD            Accounting                                                                                                     University of Mississippi

1980           MBA          Accounting                                                                                                    Tarleton State University

1976           BS               Auditing                                                                           Iranian Institute of Advanced Accounting

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